DIY Filming

Lon Haverly · 05-11-2005, 05:23 PM

I am nearly done filming thirteen videos hopefully for TV (Oregon Public Broadcasting.) I used two high end digital cameras, Final Cut Pro and a mac G5. What a huge undertaking. It has consumed all of my time for the last year. I initially had producers who were going to do this, but I had trouble with both of them. The first was a big local TV station who led me on for six months saying they wanted the project, because it had been tentatively approved by OPB. Then they changed CEOs and dumped it.

Then my brother wanted to film it. He has quite a bit of film equipment. He came down from Tacoma. The first day on the set, I told him we needed to sit down and hash out a royalty agreement, as I am a "starving artist." He immediately quipped, "Naw, don't worry about it! Let's just get it in the can! We can talk about that later!" Well, never talk about money later. After four weeks of filming, and four months of delays due to technical repairs, we had one week left of filming. A few days before he came down, he sent me an email with an invoice for $40,000 due prior to the release of any film!

You can imagine my response.

I was not discouraged. One of my mall walkers who daily peeks in on me and who was following the progress of my filming, asked me how the project was going. They wound up buying me a whole TV studio.

Now, I am done filming, done editing. But I am having trouble getting the film on to VCR format, as I am short of ram and storage. Compression issues and audio playback may also have something to do with it. It is hard to get 1/2 hour of video to play back on a computer without dropping a single frame.

So, I am patiently waiting for the wisdom and the resources to finish this project and submit it.

Patricia Joyce · 05-11-2005, 05:45 PM

I'm looking forward to this, Lon. I hope your final hiccups are resolved and you will let us know when it is in the market!!

Michele Rushworth · 05-11-2005, 09:06 PM

Quite an ordeal, Lon! I look forward to seeing it on the air.

Lon Haverly · 05-18-2006, 07:21 PM

My show has been on the air since May 2, Tuesdays at 1:00 for all Orgonians only, I am afraid.

Lon Haverly · 08-12-2006, 09:24 PM

In order to create your own videos, you have to learn every aspect of the operation. I did not know how difficult it would be to do the final step, create a DVD.

I had quite a time getting this on to DVD. My files were 6 gigs, too big for one DVD. My video program had no compression to MPEG 2, the format used for TV DVD players. I could not find any advice that actually worked. I finally figured out a way to play the videos off of the computer through my camera with firewire, and out the camera on to an external DVD recorder with AV cables. The DVD recorder has its own compression selections, and also creates a nice menu for multiple videos, which I found helpful, since I chose to record four 27 minute episodes on a single DVD.

Then, I saved a copy of each DVD created and labeled it "master." I bought a copy of Toast for my Mac, and now when I need to make a copy of the master, I pop it into the Mac, and Toast it. The program makes a duplicate of the DVD in about ten minutes, including burning it onto a new DVD.

I use Avery label maker for the labels of the DVDs.

By the way, the DVDs are available!

Carol Norton · 08-12-2006, 10:18 PM

Then my brother wanted to film it. He has quite a bit of film equipment. He came down from Tacoma. The first day on the set, I told him we needed to sit down and hash out a royalty agreement, as I am a "starving artist." He immediately quipped, "Naw, don't worry about it! Let's just get it in the can! We can talk about that later!" Well, never talk about money later. After four weeks of filming, and four months of delays due to technical repairs, we had one week left of filming. A few days before he came down, he sent me an email with an invoice for $40,000 due prior to the release of any film!

Dear Lon,

Because I am way too timid about discussing final $ amounts with dear friends and family, (not clients who contact me) your story is a vivid lesson. I have dear friends with whom it is hard (for me) to discuss a $ amount. We KNOW that the dollar issue needs to be clarified, but darn, it is hard to do with those whom we know and trust. The bad thing about doing business with any family/friends is that we EXPECT them to treat us fairly and with respect. (as we would do to them...)

BINGO! Big mistake. Assumptions. Never a good thing as they often turn out to be incorrect.

Thank you for exposing a true story that probably is all too familiar to many of us.

Carol

Bianca Berends · 01-25-2007, 06:12 AM

Dear Carol,

When painting portraits for friends and family, I always start by sending them my price list through email and telling them that they will get a 15% discount. If you aren't able to send it to them, post it in the mail or give it to them on paper. This is always easier than taking about it first and this way there can be no misunderstanding about the price. Be the one to take the first step an always have an up to date price list.

Bianca